5 ms·

Parrot VM v1.0.0 released

61 points by johnm 18y ago

Steve0 18y ago
Site is down, I was curious so I googled a bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrot_virtual_machine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrot_virtual_machine Parrot is a register-based virtual machine being developed using the C programming language and intended to run dynamic languages efficiently. It uses just-in-time compilation for speed to reduce the interpretation overhead. It is currently possible to compile Parrot assembly language and PIR (an intermediate language) to Parrot bytecode and execute it. Parrot was started by the Perl community, and is developed with help from the open source and free software communities.
philjackson 18y ago
I commend the poster for having the will power required to omit an exclamation mark from the end of that title.
- johnm 18y ago
  :-) Since the separation of Parrot from the development of Perl 6, I do think it's fair to say that progress has been good.
reitzensteinm 18y ago
They should have waited another 14 days.
- draegtun 18y ago
  What 31st March? ;-) Parrot 1.0 was released on 17th March.. as scheduled.
Dobbs 18y ago
Parrot is out but perl 6 is only half way complete. The closest implementation has (warning!: second hand knowledge) passed 7,000 spec tests. There will be an estimated 15,000 spec tests when they are finished being written.
- gamache 18y ago
  Halfway complete means Perl 6 will drop sometime around 2020. Sounds about right to me.
  - draegtun 18y ago
    Not quite. What it means is Parrot now has a stable API for language developers.... http://perlbuzz.com/2008/11/parrot-10-will-be-out-in-march-2009.html http://perlbuzz.com/2008/11/parrot-10-will-be-out-in-march-2... Its looks like Rakudo 1.0 (Perl6 on Parrot) is earmarked for next year... 10 years earlier than you feared ;-)
    - gamache 18y ago
      Sounds good, but at this point I take any Perl 6 date projections with a big fat salt lick. Years ago, I slacked on updating my 2nd edition Camel Book to 3rd edition, figuring that I would just wait for the Perl 6 version. Ten years ago. The book is not in very good shape these days.
      - draegtun 18y ago
        Well Perl5 isn't disappearing because Perl6 is coming around the corner.... in fact the opposite there are lots of cools things happening right now in Perl5 world (see Moose, MooseX::Declare, etc). So perhaps you should upgrade your Camel book or look at "Perl Best Practices" by Damian Conway. Also keep an eye on http://www.modernperlbooks.com http://www.modernperlbooks.com As for Perl6/Rakudo... no need to wait its already here! Clearly its still "beta" but that shouldn't stop you downloading and playing with it.
        gamache 18y ago
        I've read Perl Best Practices. Good book. I don't agree with every single one (the deep ?: structures in particular) but everything in there is very sane. I've also found that with http://perldoc.perl.org http://perldoc.perl.org, I don't have to refer to the book much at all. However, these days I favor Ruby over Perl. Especially now that the interpreter is not dog-slow anymore.
StrawberryFrog 18y ago
- That website is dead! + No it's not, it's just resting. - Resting? I know a " operation timed out" when I see one. + It's pining for the fjords. ... etc.
- jrockway 18y ago
  Ah, so the script that automatically posts this skit to Reddit whenever the word "Parrot" is mentioned works with HN now. Very nice. Or should I say, this joke was funny about 5 years ago. After being used 150 times since then, it's really lost its charm.
  - blasdel 18y ago
    To be fair, the web server really was dead for quite a while (and I really hate that movie).
  - StrawberryFrog 18y ago
    "whenever the word "Parrot" is mentioned"? No, I posted it because the website as as dead as a parrot. And ended with "etc" quite quickly because, yeah, old gag.
jballanc 18y ago
Parrot's biggest issue is that they don't have a First-among-equals language that they can do better than anyone else. JVM has Java, CLR has C#, even Perl 6 has moved to PUGS. I commend the Parrot team for the amazing effort they've been showing, but I'd liken this to Duke Nukem Forever finally settling on a Physics Engine...
- jrockway 18y ago
  Perl 6 hasn't moved to Pugs. Although anything that passes the Perl 6 test suite is Perl 6, the "real" Perl 6 is Rakudo, which runs on Parrot. Pugs was really just a prototype. Read the source code some time, and you'll see why.
- johnm 18y ago
  What language do you think would be best for them/someone to move to Parrot as their base platform? Given Parrot's very dynamic nature, a dynamic language seems like a good idea. Io would be quite interesting but it's too esoteric at this point so perhaps a more popular prototype-based language like JavaScript? What about dumping the old, crappy C-based implementation of Ruby for Parrot?
  - draegtun 18y ago
    There is already an implementation of Ruby on Parrot called "Cardinal". Don't know its status but it can now be found in GitHub http://github.com/cardinal http://github.com/cardinal There is also a Python implementation called "Pynie" http://code.google.com/p/pynie/ http://code.google.com/p/pynie/ List of language developments are kept on the wiki at https://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/Languages https://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/Languages. If language developers get behind Parrot it could become a very interesting alternative to JVM & .Net
    - jballanc 18y ago
      Last I checked Cardinal was dead... and even if not, is it 1.9 compatible?

61 points by johnm 18y ago

Site is down, I was curious so I googled a bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrot_virtual_machine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parrot_virtual_machine Parrot is a register-based virtual machine being developed using the C programming language and intended to run dynamic languages efficiently. It uses just-in-time compilation for speed to reduce the interpretation overhead. It is currently possible to compile Parrot assembly language and PIR (an intermediate language) to Parrot bytecode and execute it. Parrot was started by the Perl community, and is developed with help from the open source and free software communities.

philjackson 18y ago

I commend the poster for having the will power required to omit an exclamation mark from the end of that title.

johnm 18y ago
:-) Since the separation of Parrot from the development of Perl 6, I do think it's fair to say that progress has been good.

reitzensteinm 18y ago

They should have waited another 14 days.

draegtun 18y ago
What 31st March? ;-) Parrot 1.0 was released on 17th March.. as scheduled.

Dobbs 18y ago

Parrot is out but perl 6 is only half way complete. The closest implementation has (warning!: second hand knowledge) passed 7,000 spec tests. There will be an estimated 15,000 spec tests when they are finished being written.

gamache 18y ago
Halfway complete means Perl 6 will drop sometime around 2020. Sounds about right to me.
- draegtun 18y ago
  Not quite. What it means is Parrot now has a stable API for language developers.... http://perlbuzz.com/2008/11/parrot-10-will-be-out-in-march-2009.html http://perlbuzz.com/2008/11/parrot-10-will-be-out-in-march-2... Its looks like Rakudo 1.0 (Perl6 on Parrot) is earmarked for next year... 10 years earlier than you feared ;-)
  - gamache 18y ago
    Sounds good, but at this point I take any Perl 6 date projections with a big fat salt lick. Years ago, I slacked on updating my 2nd edition Camel Book to 3rd edition, figuring that I would just wait for the Perl 6 version. Ten years ago. The book is not in very good shape these days.
    - draegtun 18y ago
      Well Perl5 isn't disappearing because Perl6 is coming around the corner.... in fact the opposite there are lots of cools things happening right now in Perl5 world (see Moose, MooseX::Declare, etc). So perhaps you should upgrade your Camel book or look at "Perl Best Practices" by Damian Conway. Also keep an eye on http://www.modernperlbooks.com http://www.modernperlbooks.com As for Perl6/Rakudo... no need to wait its already here! Clearly its still "beta" but that shouldn't stop you downloading and playing with it.
      - gamache 18y ago
        I've read Perl Best Practices. Good book. I don't agree with every single one (the deep ?: structures in particular) but everything in there is very sane. I've also found that with http://perldoc.perl.org http://perldoc.perl.org, I don't have to refer to the book much at all. However, these days I favor Ruby over Perl. Especially now that the interpreter is not dog-slow anymore.

StrawberryFrog 18y ago

- That website is dead! + No it's not, it's just resting. - Resting? I know a " operation timed out" when I see one. + It's pining for the fjords. ... etc.

jrockway 18y ago
Ah, so the script that automatically posts this skit to Reddit whenever the word "Parrot" is mentioned works with HN now. Very nice. Or should I say, this joke was funny about 5 years ago. After being used 150 times since then, it's really lost its charm.
- blasdel 18y ago
  To be fair, the web server really was dead for quite a while (and I really hate that movie).
- StrawberryFrog 18y ago
  "whenever the word "Parrot" is mentioned"? No, I posted it because the website as as dead as a parrot. And ended with "etc" quite quickly because, yeah, old gag.

jballanc 18y ago

Parrot's biggest issue is that they don't have a First-among-equals language that they can do better than anyone else. JVM has Java, CLR has C#, even Perl 6 has moved to PUGS. I commend the Parrot team for the amazing effort they've been showing, but I'd liken this to Duke Nukem Forever finally settling on a Physics Engine...

jrockway 18y ago
Perl 6 hasn't moved to Pugs. Although anything that passes the Perl 6 test suite is Perl 6, the "real" Perl 6 is Rakudo, which runs on Parrot. Pugs was really just a prototype. Read the source code some time, and you'll see why.
johnm 18y ago
What language do you think would be best for them/someone to move to Parrot as their base platform? Given Parrot's very dynamic nature, a dynamic language seems like a good idea. Io would be quite interesting but it's too esoteric at this point so perhaps a more popular prototype-based language like JavaScript? What about dumping the old, crappy C-based implementation of Ruby for Parrot?
- draegtun 18y ago
  There is already an implementation of Ruby on Parrot called "Cardinal". Don't know its status but it can now be found in GitHub http://github.com/cardinal http://github.com/cardinal There is also a Python implementation called "Pynie" http://code.google.com/p/pynie/ http://code.google.com/p/pynie/ List of language developments are kept on the wiki at https://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/Languages https://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/Languages. If language developers get behind Parrot it could become a very interesting alternative to JVM & .Net
  - jballanc 18y ago
    Last I checked Cardinal was dead... and even if not, is it 1.9 compatible?